Matt Simmons Tells Bloomberg Only Way To Contain Oil Leak Is With Small Nuclear Bombs

Zero Hedge ^ | 5/30/2010 | Tyler Durden

[mojito]

In his May 28th interview with Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton and Lori Rothman, Matt Simmons of energy investment bank Simmons & Company, provides some stunning revelations on what is really occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, and proposes that the only effective way to contain the leak is to relieve BP, bring in the military, and do what the Russians have done on comparable occasions, namely explode nuclear weapons within the wellbore.

[....]

In addition to his radical solution, Simmons also points out that "Top Kill" is a sideshow and the real problem is 5 to 7 miles away, where a second fissure is "releasing a plume the size of Delaware and Maryland combined." If Simmons is indeed right, and the only recourse left to Obama is to nuke the seabed, the repercussions for his already shaky political situation will be tremendous.

[Razmataz]

Just tell the Great Reader that the hole is full of
Christian Veterans on their way to a Tea Party meeting..,.
and he’d ‘git ‘er done’.

[SpaceBar]

I don't buy the notion that a nuke is “the way”. Just because there's a video of Russians killing a mosquito with a shotgun doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best way. Conventional explosive charges close enough to the pipe (probably a 14'' casing) and at a suitable depth so the overburden weight helps to seal it off, would create a shear couple that would effectively disable the pipe and seal the whole thing off. The well would be a unsalvagable, but it would shut it down.

[Cyropaedia]

"... Beavis, why don't we just tell President Obama to like... uh, nuke the spill and plug the damned hole?

- You just said, 'plug the hole' ... he... he, he, heh, heh ...".

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

There is one problem. Compehensive Test Ban Treaty. I would love to take a front row seat and experience an explosion we still have to get around the CTBT

[montanajoe]

The relief wells will be done by August. Its not a big deal

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Maybe you get around it because it has not been formally ratified.

[DB]

One would think they could bore another hole near the blowout hole a couple of hundred feet down and then pack it with explosives so that it all collapses sealing the blowout deep enough to hold back the tremendous pressures involved.

[Americanwolf]

real the russians have done it to run away natural gas wells

[Gondring]

Yes Matt you are so right, and why don’t you have the aliens in the space craft you’re in help us?

Exactly.

I love where they say...

[...] do what the Russians have done on comparable occasions, namely explode nuclear weapons within the wellbore.

Number one...when has there been "comparable occasions"?

Number two...Assuming they are actually talking about the gas well nuking on land (i.e., not an oil well, offshore, in deep water), then that wasn't "within the wellbore"...but was from an adjacent borehole.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I suppose it’ll be left for President Palin to use a nuclear device. This nancy boy doesn’t have the stones to make that kind of decision. Oh well, there goes what economy we had left.

[alpo]

My solution is to get BP out of the area and announce that the first oil company to cap the well can have the production from it free of taxes for as long as it produces.

Probably have the sucker under control by the evening news...

[Smokin' Joe]

This idiot is a banker?

He is saying we need to use a nuclear device to shut in an oilwell?

Well crap, excuse the hellout of me while I go discuss investment portfolio options with the toolpusher and the Company hand out here. I'm a geologist and between the three of us maybe we could fix the banking system.

How about we nuke the nitwits and let the professionals shut in the well.

It has been one month. The Ixtoc 1 took 10 months to shut in. Keep your frilly panties on and quit crapping in them people.

[jpsb]

I certainly hope this is not true.

[Gondring]

One would think they could bore another hole near the blowout hole a couple of hundred feet down

Depends on the stratigraphy. I doubt a couple of hundred feet down is deep enough without just opening up more pathways to the surface. What a mess that would be--with the oil coming up through seeps everywhere instead of just the casing!

You'd want to get deep enough to seal it off at a caprock or formation that will have sufficient plasticity under the conditions, to create a good seal after the explosion. I wouldn't use conventional explosives for this. You do realize that conventional explosives are used to increase flow to a well, right?

[jpsb]

If you watched the video, you’d hear this guy saying there is another leak 5 miles from the riser leak that is much much bigger. I am not buying it.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

I even have my atomic flash glasses ready

[Cobra64]

The Ixtoc 1 took 10 months to shut in.

Huh?

[Natural Born 54]

I know you have followed this situation closely. I have read quite a few articles but have not come across an explanation that ties the mega leak “5 to 7 miles away” to the BP oil leak at the drilling site. How are the two related?

[Kickass Conservative]

Great, then we have another Godzilla on our hands.

Where is Raymond Burr, the voice of reason, when you need him?

[Natural Born 54]

That would be very interesting to observe.